hey wisecracks beard again we got some
pretty encouraging comments from our
Suicide Squad autopsy so we decided to
try it again this time we're diving into
the trenches with my latest time-suck
Battlefield one just to know we're not
here to tell you whether or not
Battlefield is fun it is or if it's
historically accurate it's not or if
ciphers are ruining the game they might
be we're here instead in good
wisecracking and fashion to delve into
the brains of the game battlefield one
does something that most of its
predecessors never dared to do and that
was to say something now saying
something in a game that's 90% getting
taunted by 12 year olds is difficult but
Battlefield tries nonetheless but does
it succeed in saying something well
let's find out
welcome is wisecrack autopsy of
battlefield one spoiler alert for old
war movies that you probably should have
seen already anyway but first some
context setting battlefield in the first
world war is more meaningful than you
might think of course you could say that
the creator's chose the Great War
because they run out of modern wars
after exhausting World War 2 Vietnam the
present-day
the future and you wouldn't be wrong
however I'd like to argue that
battlefield one setting provides really
fascinating insights into contemporary
politics and how we think about war if
you grew up around the time that I did
your childhood probably meant weeks of
hunkering down in front of a TV to avoid
the Sun and murder nuts so many Nazis
this was an era marked by games like
Call of Duty Medal of Honor and of
course battlefield 1942 world war ii is
a media darling for a reason no matter
where you land on the political spectrum
we can all agree who the good guys were
and who the bad guys were and while
world war ii has been and will likely
continue to be a hugely popular
inspiration for media it was really
popular in the early 2000s I don't think
this is entirely coincidental Call of
Duty released in 2003 the same year the
u.s. invaded Iraq Medal of Honor which
launched in 99 released eight of their
11 titles in the four years following
the start of the Iraq war battlefield
1942 released in September 2002 the same
month George Bush formerly called for
the
sting of Saddam Hussein in a year after
the u.s. declared a war on terror in
response to 9/11 meanwhile this era saw
hugely popular movies like Saving
Private Ryan which went on to inspire
Medal of Honor allied assault enemy at
the gates Pearl Harbor and the HBO
miniseries Band of Brothers world war
two caters to everyone's need for the
proponents of the war on terror and the
Iraq war which was at its onset the vast
majority of people world war ii affirms
the story of america as savior of the
world we restored freedom to europe and
we're back to do it again
and for those against America's
continued involvement in the Middle East
World War two provided a comforting
escape to the good old age when good and
evil were as clear as black and white
there are no good wars with the
following exceptions they made from
evolution world war ii and star wars
trilogy so what does any of this have to
do with battlefield 1 world war 1 has
never in recent memory been a popular
war for media but all of a sudden it's
featured by a huge franchise what makes
this war resonate with gamers now sure
it's in the midst of its centennial but
this is a war where millions didn't even
die in the glory of battle but from
disease a war where there really are no
good guys or bad guys given our current
shift in opinion about American
intervention ISM we no longer see our
wars as a conflict between good and evil
a kinder world war 2 what is a futile
tragedy akin to world war 1 this sense
of tragedy is bolstered throughout the
game by its use of pathos pathos is a
Greek word for suffering feeling emotion
calamity and for Aristotle is one of the
three modes of persuasion for a game
that's mostly about its multiplayer
battlefield finds a lot of ways to
inject pathos and not just the usual
sacrifice for the greater good kind
either
oh they got out here in lions order
for one instead of infinitely responding
in the prologue we're told that we're
not expected to survive
we're launched into a grey bleak
hellscape where every time you die
you're shown the name birth and death
dates of the soldier who just died
rather than presenting an endless series
of faceless deaths the game gives the
player a feeling of pity for the
soldiers and emphasizes the fact that
each death is an individual human
tragedy these mini obituaries share
something with the original war story
The Iliad in which Homer provides a mini
obituary for almost every character that
dies no matter how minor in order to
make sure the reader doesn't forget the
cost of battle as thinker Jasper Griffin
argues while many stories use the
countless insignificant dead as nothing
more than a mighty number for the hero
display the Iliad draws emotion from the
deaths of even the most insignificant
characters in a genre that thrives on
Fords of faceless people to kill
battlefield one sets itself apart by
forcing us to confront the actual human
toll of the war even the loading scenes
of operations mode don't provide a
coherent narrative so much as explore
the emotional lives of soldiers from
both sides the hollow optimism of Brits
fighting the Ottomans these awesome
inception be too hard to clear out and
I'm tempted to get stuck into the
champagne writing and American doughboys
fighting the German tomorrow we'll be
going over the top finally up against
the Sun so far and felt too much like a
holiday and the inevitable confrontation
would be horrors of war at the river I
thought dozen of us going to fragments
by a shell that spirit of Liberty and
got no protection in those things
battlefield sets itself up at a great
place showcasing the hopes thoughts and
dreams of soldiers during a war fraught
with moral ambiguity
in the prologue we see a Harlem Hellfire
facing off of the German soldier they
both lower their weapons and resignation
this sort of thing happened more than
you might realize
you probably heard of the Christmas
truce where soldiers from opposing army
stopped murdering each other and even
exchanged gifts so awesome battlefield
sets itself up to explore this dynamic
in its campaign that unlike World War
two we the audience are a little bit
more primed to feel for the opposing
side but battlefield quickly abandons
this in the bulk of the single-player as
soon as you move on to another war story
you're faced with actual spaceless NPCs
for you to mow down and fair enough
feeling sad for the enemy doesn't make
for very exciting gameplay in a
first-person shooter but if we had our
wisecrack way it would be really
interesting if the theme embodied in the
Hellfighters standoff was further
developed in the game we see similar
confrontations explored in film in world
war one classics like paths of glory and
all quite on the Western Front the bad
guy is not the enemy but the war itself
is in All Quiet on the Western Front
a soldier is met with horrible remorse
when he stabs an enemy combatant in a
foxhole I want to help in path of glory
a captured German woman is berated by a
bunch of rowdy soldiers before they're
overtaken by the beauty of her voice
d-bots ass past the sign half leaps and
in seven acts the arbitrary division of
humanity melts away as the soldiers join
her in song this is one of my favourite
themes and also in world war two however
the bad guy is the bad guy Saving
Private Ryan for instance shows us an
act of mercy gone wrong after up um
finds camaraderie with his German enemy
he gets his friends killed this fact
forces up him to reevaluate his view of
war and of German of them
despite featuring some stories from the
central powers and some of the loading
scenes only allies are playable in the
campaign this is a tragedy because the
interactivity of video games can provide
an unprecedented amount of depth to
these kinds of narratives what do the
stories being told in battlefield look
like from the eyes of a German or an
ottoman Suleman rather than diving into
any of the interesting themes the game
sets up such as the world's first
industrial war it's morally ambiguous
nature and the human cost of battle
we're instead given generic stories
about self-sacrifice and personal growth
video games are an incredible art form
one with tons of untapped potential and
yeah I get it the game is about yelling
at people to play the [ __ ] objective
but the creators the battlefield one
tried to do something insightful and for
that we commend them if you make games
and are watching please do more of this
but if you're a loli gamer like us
looking for a great game that explores
the psychological impact and moral
ambiguity of war play spec off the line
thanks for watching guys Pete one last
thing though just because you're on an
epic kill streak doesn't mean you need
to look like you just got back from the
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Dollar Shave Club for sponsoring this
video we've been slaving away on a bunch
of other videos for y'all including ones
on Archer The Dark Knight Rises and more
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subscribe I got to go work on some
phrasing thanks for watching guys peace
[Music]